My husband and I co own a small business.
The industry is personal services. Without getting too specific, think hair or tattooing.
Recently he got notice from one of the employees that she is quitting. She’s been with us for 6 years, but just finished her apprenticeship less than 2 years ago. Before her apprenticeship, she was working more of scheduling, cleaning, and selling products.
She gave us like 4 months notice, and that gives us time to at least start training someone else. But here’s the thing. She is already scheduled for a class pertaining to the industry that we’re paying for. It costs about $2k and the class takes place roughly two months before she leaves.
My husband asked if I think we should still pay for it, I said no because it’s an investment in an employee who will work for us. If we pay for it now, we’re investing in somebody else’s employee. He’s made up his mind he’s still going to pay for it because he doesn’t want bad blood, but I’m still annoyed. That’s money we can use for the business. Since him and I had a baby, I’ve really stepped back from working there, so I feel like he should have a final say.
But I’m still curious what other business owners think, what would you do?
It depends on what the business will get from the employee over the next 4 months. And will the customers they service remain? Would they also remain if they were fitted immediately without a replacement? There’s lots of factors to consider.
It sounds like if it takes a year at least to train a replacement four months is highly valuable to still have a trained professional on staff. Also since employee is moving out of state, no risk of clients following her to her new position. Loyal clients might even like if she’s having a hand in training her replacement and not just suddenly gone. OP is being short-sighted especially given cash flow will cover training in one day.